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Sometime in late 1987, DC Comics and Batman editor Dennis O’Neil became aware that Jason Todd had become unpopular with readers and decided to remove him from the Robin role. The question was how to do that. Seeking a new way to interact with fans, and perhaps inspired by references to a dead Jason in Frank Miller’s non-canonical future history comic book miniseries, The Dark Knight Returns, the company set up two 1-900 number 50-cent hotlines giving callers the ability to vote for or against Jason’s death. The call-in period started after publication of the issue in which Jason and his mother are trapped in the warehouse.

Over 10,000 votes were cast, with the final vote being 5,343 votes for Jason to die over 5,271 for him to live. DC published A Death in the Family to massive media attention, some of it critical. Over a decade later, in a Newsarama interview conducted alongside writer Judd Winick, O’Neil said: “I heard it was one guy, who programmed his computer to dial the thumbs down number every ninety seconds for eight hours, who made the difference.” If true, that would have amounted to over 200 votes (and 100 dollars), certainly enough to decide the count. There is no way to confirm that rumor, but it adds uncertainty to the question of whether the poll was an accurate measure of what fans wanted to happen to Jason Todd.

The issue of Jason Todd’s death was often raised over the years in the mainstream Batman stories, becoming almost as important a factor in his life as the death of his parents. It intensified Batman’s feud with the Joker, making it even more personal. In the course of the Batman: Knightfall story arc, Batman is exposed to the Scarecrow’s fear toxin, causing him to hallucinate about Jason’s death. However, instead of fear, he reacts in rage, and brutally beats the Joker while screaming Jason’s name. He often visits Jason’s gravesite and raises his death as a factor in his reluctance to take on new sidekicks, such as Tim Drake (the third Robin and current Red Robin), Stephanie Brown (the fourth Robin, and third Batgirl), Cassandra Cain (the second Batgirl), and Damian Wayne (the fifth Robin). Jason is memorialized in the Batcave; his Robin costume is preserved under glass, along with the epitaph “A Good Soldier.”

In the Hush storyline, it was hinted that Todd is alive, as a young man who strongly resembles him is standing on his desecrated grave. However, in the end, Batman finds that it was Clayface mimicking the role. In the “Under the Hood” arc, it is revealed that it was Todd whom Batman had fought, but he then switched places with the shapeshifter in collaboration with the villains Hush, Riddler, and Talia al Ghul. Todd reveals himself to Batman as the murderous vigilante, the Red Hood. Jason cripples Black Mask’s criminal organization in Gotham, and kidnaps the Joker and beats him with a crowbar in an abandoned building. During the ensuing struggle with Batman, Todd detonates the building, but he, Batman and the Joker survive.

The details of Todd’s return are revealed in Batman Annual #25 and Red Hood: The Lost Years #1-6.

It’s been a year since Prince died and i’m still a little bit in shock. I’m in shock because I still can’t really wrap my mind around the fact that he’s gone and because it already been a year! I’ve always been a big fan of Prince since I was a kid. As a kid, back in 1985 (I was 8) I remember going with my mom over to her friends house to play Scrabble every Saturday night. All of her friends had kids my age and we would play around the house while the adults sat in the dining room laughing and blasting music. Invariably it always came down to two choices of music by the end of the night. Prince or Michael? The debate was never answered or won, but it was always a source of lively discussion. The answer didn’t really matter because by the end of the night both Purple Rain and Thriller had both been played in their entirety. Those were two albums that were the soundtrack of my childhood.

A short 4 years later in 1989, Batman was released. Up until then the only live action Batman that I had seen were the old Adam West and Burt Ward serials. But as we all know now, this was NOT the same Batman from the Golden Age of comics. This was a dark and gritty (a phrase that gets thrown around WAY to often nowadays) Batman who patrolled the garbage strewn alleys and the gargoyle laden rooftops of a gruesome Gotham City. It seemed to perpetually dark and had a character all its own.

It seemed only natural that it had a soundtrack to match. The score was composed by Danny Elfman, whose “Batman Theme” is now iconic for anyone who grew up on this movie, it’s sequels and Batman: The Animated Series.

Batdance was one of two songs that made it on to the Batman soundtrack. The other being “Partyman” which was played during Joker’s parade of hot air balloons with Smilex gas canisters attached. Batdance is pretty much two different songs mixed together. The first part of the song is a crazy mix of electric guitar solos, soundbytes from the movie and and electro-synth piano/drumbeat mix. The middle of the song, the “Vicky Vale” section, features more drum beats, soundbytes and Prince adding signature vocals. The third act of the song is similar to the beginning with more craziness added in.

The video for the song, features Prince in one half Batman costume and one half Joker costume complete with white face paint and green hair.

The video also features one Vicki Vale wearing a black dress with the words “All this and brains too”, a reference to The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, in which a female news presenter wears a top with the same slogan.

Gemini is Prince’s astrological sign, and is a reference to the duality in his music. “Gemini” would also make an appearance in the “Partyman” video, but with the “Batman” half replaced by Prince’s face without makeup.

The Batman and Jokers alternate dance sections, while Prince (as both himself and Gemini) sings the lyrics. The video ends with Gemini hitting a detonator, exploding an electric chair (referenced in the song), and Prince (actually Michael Keaton’s voice) saying “Stop” as the video abruptly ends.

The video earned Prince a 1990 Soul Train Music Award nomination for Best R&B/Soul Music Video, and nomination for Best Video From a Film from the MTV Video Music Awards of the same year.

What do you think about the song? Have you heard it? Do you love it? What is your favorite Prince song? Let’s discuss below.

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Suicide Squad is an upcoming American superhero film based on the DC Comics antihero team of the same name. It is intended to be the third installment in the DC Extended Universe. The film is written and directed by David Ayer and stars an ensemble cast featuring Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, Jay Hernandez, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Ike Barinholtz, and Scott Eastwood.

By February 2009, a Suicide Squad film was in development at Warner Bros. Pictures. Ayer signed on to write and direct in September 2014 and by October the casting process had begun. Principal photography began on April 13, 2015 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada with additional filming in Chicago, Illinois, and ended in August that year. The film is scheduled to be released on August 5, 2016.

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After being shot multiple times by Talia Al Ghul, Batman has to make the difficult decision to save The Jokers life. The Dark Knight has to save his life in order to find where Ra’s Al Ghul and Talia have gone….

The Lazarus Pit has restorative capabilites, such has bringing the nearly dead back to life and restoring youth, vigor and vitality to the aged. However to some, after emerging from The Pit, undergo a brief period of insanity.

EDIT: I was screen capping the trailer for a separate post and lo and behold on one of the caps what do I see? The Greek symbol or Omega on the cap where Batman is standing on the mountainside. We know that Darkseid shoots his Omega beams out of his eyes, so is Bats on Apokolips? Or is this still the Knightmare dream sequence? Take a look at all the screen caps and tell me what you think!

While investigate the strange appearance of a giant space explorer who crashed on the moon, Bruce somehow notices a minuscule spy drone watching them. Notice that he ‘feels’ its presence through the vacuum of space and beyond his space suit before he actually sees it.

Trapped in a world where they can scarcely tell friend from foe, the Turtles’ first encounter with the Dark Knight puts their fighting skills to the ultimate test. And while Batman and scientist Lucius Fox search for any clue as to where these strange ninjas come from, Shredder strikes a deal with The Penguin!

It’s Billy Club vs. Batarang when DD meets the Dark Knight. When you think about it, Daredevil and Batman have a lot in common. Both lost their parents at a young age, both prowl urban jungles, and both strike fear in the hearts of superstitious and cowardly criminals. So why are they at each other’s throats? Maybe it’s because Batman has chased Two-Face and Mr Hyde into the Big Apple and is soon to learn that he’s not in Gotham City anymore.

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DC vs. Marvel Comics (issues #2–3 titled Marvel Comics vs. DC) was a comic book limited series crossover published by DC Comics (Detective Comics) and Marvel Comics from April to May 1996. The series was written by Ron Marz and Peter David, with art by Dan Jurgens and Claudio Castellini.

Two godly brothers who personify the DC and Marvel Universes become aware of the other’s existence, and challenge one another to a series of duels involving each universe’s respective superheroes. The losing universe would cease to exist. The story had an “out of universe” component in that, although there were eleven primary battles, five outcomes were determined by fan vote.

The six preliminary battles were:

Aquaman (DC) vs. Namor (Marvel).

Elektra (Marvel) vs. Catwoman (DC).

Flash (DC) vs. Quicksilver (Marvel).

Robin (DC) vs. Jubilee (Marvel).

Silver Surfer (Marvel) vs. Green Lantern (DC).

Thor (Marvel) vs. Captain Marvel (DC).

There were five battles in which the outcomes were determined by the votes of fans:

Each side attained three victories in the preliminary battles and five battles were decided by fan vote, of which Marvel came out ahead with 3 wins to DC’s 2.

However, the storyline does not show one side as being victorious. As part of a last-ditch effort to save their worlds, the Spectre and the Living Tribunal were able to briefly force the “brothers” to resolve the situation by temporarily creating a new universe, called the Amalgam Universe, which is occupied by merged versions of many of the heroes (such as Dark Claw, a merging of the characters Batman and Wolverine).

An inter-dimensional character called Access eventually managed to restore the universes to their normal state with the aid of Batman and Captain America. The presence of the two heroes (essentially serving as the brothers in miniature, each being unique among their peers) forced the brothers to recognize how petty their disagreement truly was.

DC vs. Marvel Comics (issues #2–3 titled Marvel Comics vs. DC) was a comic book limited series crossover published by DC Comics (Detective Comics) and Marvel Comics from April to May 1996. The series was written by Ron Marz and Peter David, with art by Dan Jurgens and Claudio Castellini.

Two godly brothers who personify the DC and Marvel Universes become aware of the other’s existence, and challenge one another to a series of duels involving each universe’s respective superheroes. The losing universe would cease to exist. The story had an “out of universe” component in that, although there were eleven primary battles, five outcomes were determined by fan vote.

The six preliminary battles were:

Aquaman (DC) vs. Namor (Marvel).

Elektra (Marvel) vs. Catwoman (DC).

Flash (DC) vs. Quicksilver (Marvel).

Robin (DC) vs. Jubilee (Marvel).

Silver Surfer (Marvel) vs. Green Lantern (DC).

Thor (Marvel) vs. Captain Marvel (DC).

There were five battles in which the outcomes were determined by the votes of fans:

Each side attained three victories in the preliminary battles and five battles were decided by fan vote, of which Marvel came out ahead with 3 wins to DC’s 2.

However, the storyline does not show one side as being victorious. As part of a last-ditch effort to save their worlds, the Spectre and the Living Tribunal were able to briefly force the “brothers” to resolve the situation by temporarily creating a new universe, called the Amalgam Universe, which is occupied by merged versions of many of the heroes (such as Dark Claw, a merging of the characters Batman and Wolverine).

An inter-dimensional character called Access eventually managed to restore the universes to their normal state with the aid of Batman and Captain America. The presence of the two heroes (essentially serving as the brothers in miniature, each being unique among their peers) forced the brothers to recognize how petty their disagreement truly was.

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The Arkham Knight is a fictional supervillain who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics, and is the titular villain in Rocksteady Studios’ upcoming video game Batman: Arkham Knight. The character was created by Rocksteady in collaboration with DC Comics CCO and writer Geoff John and officially first appeared in Batman: Arkham Knight #1

The Arkham Knight harbors a seemingly deep-rooted grudge against Batman and fully intends to kill the Dark Knight after making him suffer. To achieve his goal, he has aligned himself with Scarecrow and provides a military presence in the evacuated city of Gotham during the events of Batman: Arkham Knight.

One year after the death of the Joker during the events of Arkham City. Batman is struggling to come to terms with the absence of his nemesis and the uncomfortable feeling that the pair shared a bond deeper than either could admit. Without the Joker’s chaotic presence, Gotham’s citizens have never felt safer, and crime in the city has dramatically declined. However, this gives Batman’s enemies, including Penguin, Two-Face, and Harley Quinn, a chance to unite with the singular goal of killing Batman. On Halloween night, Scarecrow threatens the city with his newly created strain of fear toxin and bombs planted throughout Gotham, forcing the evacuation of the city’s six million civilians. Only criminals remain in the city, leaving Commissioner Gordon and the Gotham City Police Department outnumbered. Anticipating a new threat, Batman continues to develop crime-fighting technology and maintains a vigil over the city.

Through unknown means, the Arkham Knight was able to monitor the actions of Batman and everyone else involved in the Arkham City incident. After Joker’s death, the Arkham Knight witnessed a brief encounter between Batman and the new Electrocutioner which resulted in the latter being quickly defeated. Afterwards, he executed the defeated criminal with a shotgun blast to the head, while explaining that men like Electrocutioner will come to believe that him and Batman are on the same side.

The Arkham Knight later monitored Batman, as the Caped Crusader went to the abandoned Arkham Asylum to find an override code for bombs the Joker had placed in all of Arkham City’s walls prior to his death. He knew that the Joker’s threat was merely a ploy to kill Batman, and that all of the explosives had actually been moved to the old Arkham Asylum. The Arkham Knight attempted desperately to open the door to the room where Batman was and all of the explosives were concentrated in, claiming that he wanted to kill the Dark Knight, albeit at his own time. Despite his effort, he was unable to open the door and was caught in the explosion. He apparently tanked the explosion, as seen by his steaming shoulder and chest plate, and scavenged through the rubble of the asylum in search for Batman. Instead of Batman, he found a scrapbook titled “My Dieary” with a ripped drawing of the Joker beneath, afterwards claiming”. The night’s not a complete loss”.

Later, the Arkham Knight located two Joker thugs, who kidnapped and locked a family in the truck of a car, and attacked them. One of the thugs begged him to stop, but the Arkham Knight tore out the pages of the “My Dieary” book and shoved them in the thug’s mouth, before setting them both on fire, leaving the family to believe the Arkham Knight was a hero.

Ever since the death of the new Electrocutioner, some members of the GCPD came to believe that Batman was “finally getting serious about these lowlifes”. A few hours after Batman apprehended Tweedledum, Tweedledee, and their newest member Tweedledie, the Arkham Knight executed all three of them in the Gotham Central Holding Facility with a shotgun blast to each of their heads, just as he did to the Electrocutioner.

Not much is known about the Arkham Knight. Oracle reports to Batman that the man who works as Arkham Knight works with a black ops team out of Venezuela and intelligence sources can only agree that he goes by the moniker “Arkham Knight”. It is known that he is working with Scarecrow, that he somehow knows a lot about Batman, and that he wants the Dark Knight dead, but his exact motivations are unclear.

The Arkham Knight operated at Ace Chemicals, providing soldiers, weapons, vehicles, and hazardous materials, as well as perimeter security for Scarecrow. As seen in the “ACE Chemical Infiltration” trailer for Batman: Arkham Knight, the Arkham Knight takes out the bridge connecting the plant to mainland Gotham City, ambushes Batman as the Dark Knight is rescuing a trapped worker, and again in an attack chopper when Batman is rescuing a second worker.

I came across this pretty cool animated fan film on Reddit this morning. This amateur film maker made a pretty convincing “What If” film that pits most of the major players in the Marvel and DC universes against each other. Quality work! I’m now a subscriber. I hope to see much, much more from Saruhan Saral in the future!!

From the YouTube video description:

Published on Apr 21, 2015

All the Visuals and Animation by Saruhan Saral, created using Blender and After Effects

This is my first short film project. I started in February 2015 and it took me 3 months to finish the whole thing. This is not a commercial but a personal project and I’m not affiliated with any company(i.e. I don’t earn any money from this).

I didn’t model any of the characters,they are from the video games of these 2 companies but I did the rigging then animated the shots. I then used Adobe After Effects and Premiere for composition. Most voice clips are from the video games, mostly from Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Injustice: Gods Among Us.

This thread is basically specific references to the sheer number of times Batman has been outnumbered in a brawl and used his wits and fighting ability to get himself out of some pretty hairy situations.

1. Shadow of the Bat #4

Batman beats down nearly all of his rouges gallery including The Joker.

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5. Stealth

Batman remains hidden in the Watchtower for an hour without being detected by any of the members including Superman. He comments to himself, “gadget worked”, indicating that he has some type of device that can muffle his heartbeat even from Superman’s super hearing.

The squad has that dark DC cinematic look, and my favourite look surprisingly is Will Smith’s Deadshot which David Ayer tweeted out later on

He has that classic Deadshot look with an edge by changing the placement of the eye thing (my mind couldn’t recall what it was called) and changing the classic costume a tad, it added something new that can even satisfy the hardcore fanboy.
I have no doubt about Will Smith’s talent so fingers cross writing and direction will do him justice.

The most mixed reactions has been of Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn. This has been mainly coming from the minority comic book fans who…

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Baseball is back and there is no better way to mark Opening Week at Worst Comic Comics than with a celebration of comic book superheroes playing baseball! This week we hit the senior circuit with the classic DC Lineup taking the field. PLAY BALL!

Adam West and Burt Ward were in attendance at a Batman panel this weekend at the Mad Monster Party in Charlotte, N.C. this weekend and made the announcement that they would lend their voices to a 90-minute, animated feature in 2016 in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the venerated TV series.